Measure AA

YES. Sunset Beach, a community of roughly 1,200 residents, was annexed last year by Huntington Beach. Measure AA proposes that Sunset Beach residents pay the same per rata cost for municipal services as their fellow Huntington Beach residents. That would include property taxes, utility user taxes, transient occupancy taxes and business license taxes. It also would include fees related to refuse collection, water, sewer, oil and storm drains. If the Huntington Beach city government acceded, it would allow Sunset Beach to be a free rider on municipal services that Huntington Beach provides.

Measure BB

NO. Irvine's Measure BB asks voters whether city funds should be used to supplement local schools. This type of use of city funds is not necessarily a customary practice of most cities. Residents of Irvine value their schools, as they should, and that is why Measure BB will likely pass but we encourage deeper study into the fiscal impacts such an allocation of funds might have on the city.

Measure CC

NO. Laguna Beach voters in 1990 overwhelmingly supported acquiring and preserving open space by approving a bond measure to buy land, and in 1998 to permanently protect open space already purchased. Measure CC would impose an additional $120 tax on every land parcel, regardless of how large and valuable or small and inexpensive the property is. The proposition also would create a new, appointed – rather than elected – oversight committee, with expenses paid from the taxes raised. Creating another unappointed government committee unnecessarily provides more potential for shenanigans, unanticipated costs and unintended consequences.

Measure DD

NO. Los Alamitos' Measure DD is incredibly overbroad, taking over 300 words to describe all of the technologies subject to its tax power, including text messages, cellphones, voice-over Internet, faxes, paging systems, routers, electronic billing, video conferencing, among many others. It even taxes technologies not yet invented and prohibits residents from seeking an injunction against those taxes. In the event federal law changes and allows taxation of the Internet, Measure DD allows Los Alamitos to begin taxing it, too, without voter approval. The City Council recently voted to hold a contest to decide how to spend general fund money, which is where the telephone users' tax goes, raising the question of how essential that revenue is. Spending options include “emergency kits for every household,” and “seed money for sugar beet festival.”

Measure EE

NO. The measure makes 25 modifications to Newport Beach's City Charter; although opponents count it differently and find 38 changes. If it wins, all the changes go into effect. If it loses, no changes occur. It comes two years after Measure V in 2010, which made 15 changes to the charter, and which we supported. Some of the changes in this new measure are laudable. Others raise concerns. Attempting to force a vote on so many issues in one measure, instead of giving voters the ability to vet each individually, is problematic and enough reason to oppose the measure.

Measure FF

YES. It is understandable that residents of Orange desire more local parks and open space. However, the burden of fulfilling that public desire should not fall unfairly upon the developer of the proposed Ridgeline Equestrian Estates. Opponents of Measure FF seek to force JMI Real Estate, owner of both the old Sully-Miller Sand and Gravel Mine and the former Ridgeline Golf Course, to gift much of the mine's 110-acres to the city. In exchange, the city would allow the company to move forward with its plan to redevelop the 51-acre golf-course site. JMI has been portrayed as an evil “out-of-town developer” by foes, but has made an effort to respond to concerns that the city lacks open space. The company committed 7.54 acres park/open space, trails, etc. That's more than 20 times the parkland required by city and state mandate.

Measure GG

NO. Currently there are no term limits for Santa Ana's mayor's office. Mayor Miguel Pulido, first elected in November 1994, is running again. Measure GG is clearly is aimed at him. The council meeting that put the measure on the ballot was chaired by Councilman David Benavides, who this November is challenging Mr. Pulido for the mayor's job. We long have favored term limits but they are not a panacea for political problems. Prop. 140, which voters passed in 1990. It limited the governor to eight years in office, Assembly members to six years and state senators to eight years. It was modified in June by Prop. 28, which limited legislative terms to 12 years total in either house. Prop. 140 didn't end dysfunction in the Legislature. It only shifted power from a group of “old bulls” running the show to successive shifts of temporary leaders.

Measure HH

YES. One of the best ways to guarantee that that service is as selfless as it ought to be is to make it uncompensated. That's why we endorse Tustin's Measure HH, which eliminates City Council compensation. There's no one we can find opposing the measure and it even has the endorsement of the council members who would lose their compensation. While we endorse the measure, it wouldn't be a panacea for local governments. There's nothing in HH to prohibit current Tustin council members from lobbying city officials once out of office. Still, it's a good start.

MeasureS M-S

NO. Measures M through S are six new bonds. If school districts really need these bonds they should opt to seek the former two-thirds supermajority, which they are allowed to do under Prop. 39. But on Orange County's ballot, six school bonds are up for approval, each subject to only 55 percent approval.

Most of these bonds even use the same descriptions for what will be built, a cookie-cutter approach. Shockingly, of the four community-college districts in Orange County, two are demanding more money from taxpayers. The other four bond measures are for K-12 schools. The measures affect: The Coast Community College District (Measure M), the Fountain Valley School District (Measure N), La Habra City School District (Measure O), the Rancho Santiago Community College District (Measure Q), and the Tustin Unified School district (Measure S).

Measure T,U

NO. Hardly anyone has been harder on Brea's city government than these pages, which criticized Brea's five-member City Council for voting to increase its benefit package in June 2011, before reversing its vote six months later. Nevertheless, we cannot support Measures T, the Brea Accountability Act, and U, the Brea Open Governance Act. Measure T seems less about accountability and more about targeting selected Brea officials by limiting their paychecks. And U does little more than duplicate existing state laws.

Measure V

YES. The Register's Editorial Board has endorsed many of the efforts of the council majority. It would be wrong, then, to deny them the tools – the charter measure – to further the much-needed reforms they have advanced. Under the California Constitution, charter cities may make many of their own rules and operate with more autonomy in their municipal affairs. Enacting a city charter in Costa Mesa would allow for more local control.

Measure W

YES. Fullerton voters should use this measure to demonstrate the city's commitment to private property rights, especially in this case, where the private owner has taken into account residents' desire for more open space in its development plan. Opponents suggest developers are ignoring an earthquake fault in the area. A city-approved independent environmental impact report addressed these concerns and others, finding that development plans protect the environment and quality of life in Fullerton.

Measure X

YES. The measure's approval would mean that those fireworks deemed “safe and sane” by the City Council could be sold, possessed, and exploded in Fullerton each year from June 28 to July 6. In so doing, Fullerton will overturn its own ballot initiative, which repealed the ordinance that allowed fireworks in 1990. We endorse with a few caveats. The council would still retain the authority to decide which fireworks are “safe and sane,” a standard which is often confusing to busybodies and city councils alike.

Measure Y

NO. Measure Y asks Garden Grove voters to increase taxes on tourists and other visitors who stay in the city's hotels so those visitors “pay their fair share” for city services like police, fire, street, parks and maintenance. Without the increase, conditions “may” deteriorate, the city says. The “fair-share” argument seems to be vogue when justifying taxes. But how fair is the increase proposed in Garden Grove? Measure Y rewords city code to include them specifying, among other things, “time-share” projects and “recreational vehicle spaces.” For establishments newly added, the tax increase won't be a mere 1.5 percent; it will be a new tax of 14.5 percent.

Measure Z

YES. Outgoing Huntington Beach Mayor Don Hansen's farewell gesture to Orange County's fourth-largest city is a ballot measure that would do away with the portion of the city's annual property tax assessment that goes to some city employee pension costs. Huntington Beach is the only city in Orange County, and one of the few in California, that imposes extra levies on property owners to subsidize public employee retirements. Nothing will concentrate the minds of the next mayor and council on the city's $370 million unfunded pension liability than losing the $4.2 million in property taxes that currently go to pensions. The measure was purposely written to force the city's mayor and council to deal squarely with the city's looming pension crisis sooner rather later.

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.